The mission is to report situation with protection of human rights of Ukrainians detained in Russia

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko turned to the Council of Europe asking to send a special monitoring mission to Russia, which would assess the status of Ukrainians who serve time in this country. Presidential press service reported this on Friday.

The President met with Nils Muiznieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. “We should use all opportunities; including sending a special mission, to control the situation with detained Ukrainians and to introduce other necessary mechanisms, in particular, monitoring of situation in Russia by the European Committee of the Prevention of Torture”, Poroshenko said. According to him, criminal prosecutions of Ukrainian citizens, who are illegally kept in Russia, are politically motivated and contravene the agreed standards.

In turn, Muiznieks said he follows the situation with Nadiya Savchenko and other Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia.

The Ukrainian president also expressed concern about oppressions and kidnappings of Crimean Tatars in Russian-annexed Crimea. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights noted that attempts to ban activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people are not in line with norms of the international law. “That decision could have negative impact on thousands of people, allegedly connected with extremism by the standards of the Russian law”, he said.